


All virtue

by some_stars



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, Huddling For Warmth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-01-11
Updated: 2006-01-11
Packaged: 2017-10-03 23:29:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/some_stars/pseuds/some_stars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"In the winter, warmth stands for all virtue."</p>
            </blockquote>





	All virtue

"F-fine," McKay chattered, "fine, but when I die, just--p-put my body on the other side of the cave somewhere." For all his protesting though, once he got close enough to feel Ronon's body heat he burrowed in like a mole.

"What for?" Ronon wrapped his arms around McKay's shivering body and stuck his hands under the paper-thin jacket and shirt, pressing them against the other man's sides. His skin was freezing and damp but the heat steaming up from inside was good enough to make him grunt out loud.

McKay jumped violently and squawked something too muffled to understand. Ronon squeezed his knees tighter to keep him from moving away, and McKay lifted his head from Ronon's chest and said, "Oh my god! What are you doing! Move your hands!"

"I'm getting them warm." He started rubbing them up and down a little, and _yeah_, that was even better. He could almost feel them again, as something besides numb blocks of cold.

"Clearly, you're not, because they feel like _ice_, and also, I realize this is an awkward situation where the customary social mores are temporarily suspended, but that does not mean we need to dismiss the entire concept of personal areas!"

His voice got shriller and shriller, but he was snugging himself tighter against Ronon at the same time. "It's working, isn't it?" Ronon said.

"Personal _areas_," McKay moaned pitifully, and dropped his face to Ronon's chest again, rubbing his cheeks back and forth. Ronon pressed his face into McKay's scalp and then they stayed there for a while, passing heat back and forth.

"So why do you want me to put your body over there?" Ronon said eventually.

McKay stirred sleepily. "Muh?"

"If you die," Ronon said, and squeezed him hard to wake him up. "You said to put you over on the other side of the cave."

"Oh," McKay said, and paused for a second, then launched himself forward again. "That would be so that when they find our frozen corpses, months from now, I won't have to suffer the posthumous indignity of being discovered like this."

Ronon snorted. "We'll probably be buried in a snowdrift by then. I don't think you need to worry."

"Yes, well, pardon me if I'd rather not have my obituary end with the words, 'He died snuggling,'" McKay said. "Not to mention that everyone's final memory of me shouldn't be finding me wrapped in your huge and excessively manly arms."

"Doesn't matter anyway," Ronon said. "It'd be a waste of heat. Figure I'll cut you open, stick my hands in to keep them warm."

"Gah!" McKay yanked himself away and scrambled backwards. "Are you insane? Oh my god, you're insane, I'm trapped in a frozen cave with Jack London the Ripper."

"Who's that?"

"Who--" McKay waved his hand. "It's an Earth thing, never mind, the point is--" Ronon snickered. McKay stared at him. "Was that some sort of freakish, macabre attempt at humor?"

"Yeah," Ronon said, and leaned forward to haul him back. "I'd only do that if you were a trigaba."

"A what?"

"It's an animal. Like a--I forget what you call them. For riding."

"Oh." McKay shoved his hands under Ronon's arms with a grimace.

"Or if I really needed to," Ronon added.

"Oh, very funny," McKay snapped against his chest. "And stop laughing, you're making my head bounce."

When the radio started to hiss a minute later, Ronon thought at first it was the storm picking up outside, but then he heard Sheppard's voice coming muffled and faint from between them. McKay said, "Hey, is that--" and grabbed for his radio. "Hello? Colonel?"

"Rodney," Sheppard said, his voice clicking with static. "Some weather we're having, huh?"

"Yes, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood," McKay said, "now can we move on to the 'rescue' portion of the evening before Ronon decides to eat me and burn my hair for warmth?"

"There's not really enough to burn," Ronon said.

"Really," McKay said into the radio. "Feel free to hurry."

"Be there in a jiffy," Sheppard said. Ronon could hear the grin in his voice, and the relief. Then there was the soft thump of a jumper landing outside, and McKay abruptly jerked away and stood up.

"Right then," he said, and wrapped his arms around himself. "Just so we're clear, you will never, ever speak of this to anyone, understood?"

Ronon got up slowly, unfolding muscles stiff with cold. "What about Sheppard?"

"_Especially_ not him."

Sheppard walked in, wrapped in a huge brown coat and carrying two more that nearly hid his face. "Especially not me what?"

"What?" McKay spun around and saw him. "Nothing. It--nothing."

Ronon grabbed one of the coats and put it on. "Tell you about it on the way back," he told Sheppard, and headed outside to the waiting warmth of the jumper.


End file.
